Page 33 of Guarding Salvation

He was about to respond when an alarm started to blare throughout the facility. Bram looked at Bás and both men were on their feet and running toward the war room.

“Find Aoife and get her into her room, then meet me in the tech room.”

Bram was running, his feet hitting the tiled floor hard as his heart beat fast, adrenalin pumping through his blood.

“Bram?” Aoife was running down the hallway toward him, fear in her pretty green eyes that he wanted to take time to eradicate but he didn’t have it.

He gripped her arm, spinning her around back the way she’d come. “Irish, I need you in your room where it’s safe.”

“But what’s happening?”

“Someone has breached the outer security and we need to handle it.” He pushed her inside and went to close the door.

“Bram?”

“Yes?” He saw his harshness pierce her and regretted his tone. He softened his voice. “Yes?”

“Be careful.”

Without thinking, he hauled her into his arms for a hard, fast kiss and then released her just as suddenly, a smile on his face.

“Knew you liked me.”

The last thing he saw as the door closed was her shaking her head, a smile on her face and he knew he’d eased her fear for a brief moment.

The door clicked shut, the lock engaging, and he turned, his gun drawn as he ran for the tech room. Everyone was huddled around the outside monitors that covered the search and rescue centre and a half-mile radius including the vehicle entrance to the facility.

“What’s happening?”

“We got rats.”

Titan stepped back so Bram could see, and he saw five men in tactical clothing, poking around the area where the vehicles were kept.

“We have two up near the search and rescue hub too,” Snow pointed out.

“Snow, stay here and make sure the facility is secure. Titan, handle the two men at the hub. Bram, Lotus, and I will handle the other five. Keep them alive if you can. We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves, and we need to find out what they want and who they are.”

Everyone nodded and sprang into action, with him, Bás, and Lotus heading for the armoury with Snow and Titan. Quickly donning tactical vests, masks, and weapons, they headed out into the escape tunnel that would bring them out behind the attackers. Snow and Titan headed in the opposite direction, him to take action at the centre, and Snow to secure the facility.

“Comms on.”

As everyone responded to Bás, Bram fell into line behind him with Lotus on the other side. It was as easy as breathing for him, doing this job, feeling this high as gunfire rushed by him. This was who he was, not because he’d been born that way but because the army and Shadow had trained him to be a skilled killer. This was what gave him a buzz that nothing else ever could.

Nearing the exit, they moved into the cold and fog of the mountains. Each one of them knew this terrain like the back of their hand, and they knew to respect it. A light drizzle was falling, making visibility low, which helped them. Moving silently, they crept through the long grass, keeping low.

Bram spotted the five men easily, even as they tried to blend in with the land around them. They weren’t professionals, at least not military trained. They were probably effective muscle, but they didn’t have the skill of special forces or any other military branch.

Bás made a motion with his hand and Bram nodded, following his lead as Lotus went left and he went right, fanning out and pushing them so they had their backs to the mountain with no place to go.

“I have the hostiles at the front door neutralised,” Titan commented down the comms.

Bram wondered if these men were even wearing comms and if so, why had they not realised the others were in trouble. But then Titan was a stealthy bastard for such a big guy.

Bás double-clicked to let them know all was received and stood, revealing his position. “Don’t fucking move.”

At his words, one of the men swung around firing wildly and Bram took him out with a single headshot. Lotus fired on the other, who was using his AK like he was an extra in a Rambo movie.

That left three against three with them all in a stand-off.